Lionel Messi meets Afghan Boy who became viral star

Culture&Arts Nancy Frank
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After wearing a homemade shirt with Lionel Messi famous number 10, an Afghan boy became an online sensation and now met his football hero.

After a photograph of the six-year-old Murtaza Ahmaday wearing a homemade shirt made from a plastic bag went viral, it caught the argentine’s attention who sent the little boy a signed shirt.

But, thanks to Qatar’s 2022 World Cup organizing committee, this wasn’t the last of the interaction between the two, as they have come face to face in Doha.

The Spanish club Barcelona are in Qatar to play a friendly football game against Al Ahli on Tuesday and the little internet wonder will walk out on to the field with Messi.

“The image the world wanted to see,” tweeted the Supreme Committee . “The six-year-old boy who dreamed of meeting his hero, #Messi, finally comes true.”

The boy, who lived in the Jaghori District, in Ghazni province of east Afghanistan, is a refugee in Pakistan since May. He was identified as the kid in the picture, by his uncle, Azim Ahmadi who lives in Australia, who contacted BBC Trending and put them in contact with his brother, Arif – the boy’s father. He said that he has been overwhelmed by the response to the photographs.

“We did not expect that we would get this kind of support from everyone. People from all over the world have been calling me to help get Murtaza a jersey and a football,” he told Al Jazeera.